And so I came home again, with my itinerary merging at Helsinki with the last few English football fans who had been in Estonia for the match on Sunday evening. Around gate 37 of Helsinki airport is an art gallery, which makes a difference from the usual duty free shop, but then again they do most things better in Scandinavia if you ask me. Finland sneaks back onto the blog then, 793 days after its last appearance on 12th August 2012.
I’m travelling again. In fact I still have at least four, and possibly five, separate trips abroad to make before November is finished — so much for my green credentials. I’m flying out of Manchester on three consecutive Sundays, starting today. So this will become a familiar scene.
Yesterday’s pic prefigured a day of truly foul weather, the worst in months. After trudging down — and later, back up — Oxford Road in the rain it was a relief to get inside, even if it was to the university’s mostly empty and sterile shopping precinct. Anything was preferable.
Some pubs are football pubs but some devote their Saturday afternoons to the horse racing. We found ourselves in Keighley this afternoon and, after finishing our duties, as we do, gravitated to the nearest pub — with the bonus that this was about the first chance in my life that I had to sample the products of the Timothy Taylor brewery in the town of its origin. The Boltmakers’ Arms became the pub of choice — and very fine it was too.
Awaiting me on my return from Norway yesterday were some author’s copies of my book, this being the one I wrote while on sabbatical between January and August last year, including my time in Australia. So here it is, finally, a physical object rather than just an abstract concept. If you’re into discussions of the political theory of information, you should buy it 🙂
Fagernes Yacht Klubb is the name of this band. They play a series of hoary old 70s and 80s classics, and do so very well, despite the fact that none of them could possibly have been born before 1990. They were the climax (at least for me) of the evening’s entertainment at Høgskolen i Bergen’s opening celebrations (see also yesterday).
Technically this is still ‘Friday night’ but as it’s after midnight this qualifies to be Saturday’s pic of the day. Which makes it the earliest on any day so far, a record it will probably retain. It’s also the first to appear from the hours of 0:00 – 0:59, which means that there are now only two hours of the day unrepresented on the blog — 2:00 – 2:59 and 5:00 – 5:59. Leave it with me…
Nearly three years ago now, back towards the start of this blog, in November 2011, I posted a photo of the early stages in the development of the new campus for Høgskolen i Bergen (Bergen University College). I said back then that I was indirectly working on the project of helping the staff prepare for their move into the new campus, and three years later, that’s still what I’m doing. But we’re nearly finished with our side of it — and the new campus is now a reality. Today was my first visit there: it was great to finally see it as a space-in-use. This shot is just of some new offices in the building, but I’ve been getting more abstractly creative (or creatively abstract) lately. The circles are etched into the glass, either just for effect or to stop people randomly stepping through the windows. I like the way they obscure and then reveal the mundane personal effects behind them.
I’m travelling again; rest of this week I’m working in Norway. But because it’s Bergen (the City of Perpetual Rain) it was throwing it down on arrival, so here’s one from the journey. Rim-light is always worth trying to capture but my attention was also caught by the crates at the top which looked to my eye like a piano keyboard.
An abstract perspective on a familiar spot.
Fifth day in a row in which I have gone no further from my house than a quarter-mile away. Third day in five in which the picture of the day has been a pub. Such has been my life since Wednesday morning. It’ll change tomorrow. At least the sun came out today, and we had something other than all the recent gray crap.
